How Long to Recover from Jet Lag?

[TotallyOz]

I have had a very hard time on this trip recovering from Jet Lag. For some reason I have not been able to adjust. I will normally take a sleeping pill at night but nothing seems to work. I have yet to make it through one night of sleep. Any suggestions or tricks anyone knows?

[Guest buaseng]

I have had a very hard time on this trip recovering from Jet Lag. For some reason I have not been able to adjust. I will normally take a sleeping pill at night but nothing seems to work. I have yet to make it through one night of sleep. Any suggestions or tricks anyone knows?

Forget the sleeping pills. Several large slugs of my favourite tipple about an hour before I want to go to sleep usually does the trick !

 

p/s If you really want to be sure, take the sleeping pills as well (but the trouble with that is you may do a Heath Ledger !)

[PattayaMale]

This use to work for me. Jog. Get up at sunrise and Jog. Then go for breakfast with coffee. Go for a walk or better yet a swim. Go read the paper somewhere but don't lay down. Take another short swim, walk or jog. Around 2 or 3 pm, take a nap. Set your alarm and get up about 6pm, another short jog or swim, shower and go out somewhere loud for dinner with friends. It will now be 8:30 or 9pm. Go to a go go bar that plays fun music and talk to some boys. Home by 10:30 or so with one or two boys. Bed by midnight. Boys do not stay over night.

 

Next day there will be no jet lag. You will feel refreshed and ready to go.

 

I am serious about the post. It may not be scientific but worked for me in the past.

[Guest JoeM]

I find getting onto local time quickly key to fighting jet lag.

 

My flights always put me into Bangkok around 11 pm and I get to Pattaya just after the bars close. I shower and hop into bed. Next morning I get up at my regular time, and as PM suggests, I follow a normal daily routine.

 

A nice dinner, a short stop at a favorite bar, light pleasure from the BF (he understands) and early to bed ends the day.

 

By the next day, the lag is definitely gone.

[Guest YardenUK]

GT jet lag proper should never last more than a couple of days. Do a google search about the effects of exercise/high body temperature on sleeping patterns - maybe all your Muay Thai adventures are having a negative effect on your sleep? Just a thought.......

[Guest fountainhall]

Around 2 or 3 pm, take a nap. Set your alarm and get up about 6pm

 

I guess this is a horses for courses thread. Personally, I find a daytime nap a disaster. Most advice is to adjust to your arrival time as soon as you get on the plane. Not easy when meals keep coming at the wrong times. Equally, you are supposed to keep going on the first full day until around 10pm, by which time your body is so shattered you will get at least a few hours natural sleep (although inevitably this kills bar-hopping that night). With an 8 - 12 hour time change, I usually wake around 3 - 4 am when I pop half a sleeping pill and manage another 3 hours or so.

 

There are lots of 'experts' around and some partial remedies do seem to work - keep in bright light during the daytimes after arrival, specific times for caffeine intake, etc. Decades ago, President Reagan's doctors came up with a hugely complicated diet to keep him awake when he had to go to Japan. It was published in a slim volume titled "The Jet Lag Diet". In addition to the sunshine/caffeine regimen, starting 3 days beforehand and for 3 days after arrival it advocated control of when you eat proteins/carbohydrates and variation of calorie intake - with feast days alternating with fast days (800 calories max.).

 

The doctors who thought it up claimed it worked for any time change. I can't believe anything worked for Reagan! I tried it at the time and at first it seemed to help. That was probably purely psychological because when one late night Hong Kong/Europe departure was delayed by 9 hours, all the 3 day 'advance' effort was wasted. And having been bumped up to first class, I immediately gave up on the diet, ate and drank almost everything for the next 15 hours (those were the days before non-stops), rolled off the plane in London - and had zero jet-lag on arrival. 25 years older, I now adjust my watch as I set off for the departure airport and take the moderation route - but it's never easy!

[Guest]

Thanks for the input guys. I do appreciate it. I have not been sleeping in the day time. I have been taking about a 20 min nap in late afternoon before my workout. Other than that, I still can't seem to force myself to sleep. I took an Ambian at 11PM last night. Then, I took a Tylenol PM around 2AM and still, I did not sleep till 4. I have the alarm clock set for 5:30AM so that does not leave much time for a real rest. But, I will take some of the suggestions and try. Not sure about the Regan Diet. That is way too complicated for me.

[Guest jomtien]

Thanks for the input guys. I do appreciate it. I have not been sleeping in the day time. I have been taking about a 20 min nap in late afternoon before my workout. Other than that, I still can't seem to force myself to sleep. I took an Ambian at 11PM last night. Then, I took a Tylenol PM around 2AM and still, I did not sleep till 4. I have the alarm clock set for 5:30AM so that does not leave much time for a real rest. But, I will take some of the suggestions and try. Not sure about the Regan Diet. That is way too complicated for me.

 

 

You could always have a cute Muay Thai boxer aim a swift roundhouse kick at you head at about 11PM!

 

B)

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest]

You could always have a cute Muay Thai boxer aim a swift roundhouse kick at you head at about 11PM!

 

LOL. I actually have one in mind I would let do that. But, so far, my attempts at "friendship" have been kept at bay. I'm working on it.